


dance with me

by kearlyn



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Jyn Erso, F/M, Get Together, Post-Battle of Scarif, Rebelcaptain Secret Santa, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, there's no dancing in this, unless combat counts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 11:59:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kearlyn/pseuds/kearlyn
Summary: Cassian knows it’s a bad idea, standing in the shadow of Yavin IV’s great temple watching Jyn test herself against a squad of Pathfinders. He has no words to define their relationship and a million things to do to help the evacuation, but he can't help but watch.





	dance with me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [K_lara7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_lara7/gifts).



> This work was written for the amazing [k-lara7](https://k-lara7.tumblr.com/) for the RebelCaptain Secret Santa 2017. They gave me the prompt "Cassian knew this was a bad idea," which spawned about a million ideas. This one turned out a little less fluffy than I was planning when I started writing, and I'm amazed I wrote this many words without a single line of dialogue.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

Cassian knows it’s a bad idea, standing in the shadow of Yavin IV’s great temple watching Jyn test herself against a squad of Pathfinders. His injuries from Scarif aren’t quite healed enough for this much standing. They’re not even healed enough that he should be out of the Medical Bay, but the Rebel Alliance is in a rush to evacuate Yavin IV before the Empire comes back for them.

Which is the other reason Cassian shouldn’t be spending his time lingering and staring.

He can’t help himself though.

Jyn Erso has been catching his attention since the first moment he saw her in the briefing before they headed to Jedha. It hadn’t been more than a passing interest then. The woman he’d seen was aesthetically pleasing, even just broken out of prison, and had been the subject of months of hard-won intelligence.

But he didn’t know her yet.

Four days later, he still hadn’t been able to put a name to the tangle of emotion that had grown from passing interest to a confusing ball that both twisted his stomach into knots and made his heart feel like it was thumping its way out of his chest. All he knew was that there on the beaches of Scarif, wrapped in Jyn’s arms with his own around her waist, is the safest he’s felt since his childhood on Fest.

He’s still trying to work out what it means and what he’s going to do about it when he catches sight of her in one of the temple’s overgrown courtyards sparring with a squad of Pathfinders scheduled to ship out in a few hours. He’s supposed to be helping the Communications personnel pack up the remainder of their equipment to ship out with the next transport and trash the equipment they aren’t taking.

But movement in the corner of his vision draws his attention and he steps through an opening in the temple’s ground floor to see Jyn.

She moves like she’s dancing, whirling between two humans and a Trandoshan with only a single baton in her hand as she fends off their strikes. Her fleet skate across the uneven stone, and her stride doesn’t falter as she ducks under the human woman’s swing and plants the baton in her stomach, just hard enough to knock the breath out of the Pathfinder.

The wet jungle air has plastered her hair to her face and neck where it’s escaped from her ponytail. Sunlight dapples the bare skin of her arms when it peaks through the growing clouds.

Her opponent falls away, but Jyn is already turning to block the thrust of the Trandoshan and strike out at the human male. She barely has to look at her opponents, already turning towards the next strike as she completes the first.

Cassian is mesmerized.

He’s reminded sharply of those frantic hours on Jedha when Jyn had taken down a whole squad of stormtroopers while Cassian stood by and watched in awe.

The feeling now is exactly the same, and he finds himself leaning against the temple’s massive stone walls, his mind empty of anything but the scene in front of him.

He knows Jyn is deliberately prolonging the match. He spots at least a dozen times when she could have ended the fight, openings she didn’t take and strikes she pulled just a little more than necessary.

She’s enjoying it, he thinks, and the fierce grin on her face certainly confirms it.

He doesn’t know how long he watches. Time and thought slip away from him, lost in the thrust, strike, whirl of her dance.

He’s only startled back to thought when thunder rolls across the sky.

The cloud have grown thick and dark, and as he looks back down towards Jyn, the first drops of rain splash onto the temple’s stones.

She’s clearly noticed the change in weather as well. The fighters have abandoned their dance; the Pathfinders and clapping each other on the shoulders and being gently ribbed by their comrades. Jyn stands just apart. Her baton has vanished, stowed back away for the next fight, but her jacket hangs lose in her hands.

The Pathfinder squad calls to her as they head towards the temple. He doesn’t hear the words exchanged, but the Pathfinders walk away without looking back and Jyn stays standing out in the courtyard.

Cassian fades back into an alcove as the Pathfinders approach, reluctant to let them see him. He watches them as they go by—a solid bunch, trading smiles and dissecting the fight as they go.

He’s amused by the human male who calls Jyn a badass. He thinks he’ll tell her about that later.

Cassian turns back to find Jyn still standing outside in the downpour. She’s clearly soaked to the bone, the heavy fabric of her clothing clinging to every curve, but her face is tilted upwards into the rain, welcoming the slide of water across her skin. There’s something achingly painful and achingly beautiful in the tilt of her chin, the set of her shoulders, and the water running over her fingers.

He thinks, then, about leaving. The dance is over and this moment feels too private.

But he can’t make himself walk away.

Jyn is the star around which he has come to orbit, and the thought of moving _away_ from her instead of towards her is nearly unbearable. Without his conscious thought, he finds his feet carrying him out from under the shadow of the temple and into the courtyard beyond.

Water instantly plasters his hair to his head and begins the process of soaking through his clothing. He barely notices. His attention is on Jyn and every step brings him closer to her.

Her eyes are closed but her lips tilt upwards into a soft smile as Cassian approaches.

He’s not surprised that she knows he’s there. She seems as aware of him as he is of her.

She reaches out a hand and he tangles their fingers together.

He doesn’t understand this impulse drawing them together. Doesn’t understand the need to be near her, hold her, be part of her and have her be part of him.

She opens her eyes and looks up to meet his gaze. Water drips from her lashes and down her face. The green of her eyes seems brighter, an invitation to something he doesn’t understand but wants with every desperate fiber of his being.

_What is this?_ he wants to ask. _What are we?_

He doesn’t. Can’t.

She takes the first step forward, into his space, keeping tight hold of his fingers and drawing his arm backwards around her. He follows her lead. It’s become a pattern, he thinks, and doesn’t care one bit. He pulls her close and she lets him, fitting their bodies together, chest to chest and arms around each other.

They’ve been like this before, but then it was a last moment of comfort on a fiery beach as death raced towards them.

Now there’s a different comfort in it. The world is muted by the water pouring down around them, a curtain closing around them until it’s just the two of them, alone together.

She smiles up at him, brown hair plastered against her forehead and the green in her eyes sparkling.

He wants… He doesn’t know what he wants. He doesn’t know how to explain this feeling. How to make it make sense.

_What is this? What are we?_

He doesn’t say anything, and neither does she. Later, they’ll have to talk about this. Have to give a name to this something. Right now, none of that is necessary.

Cassian doesn’t know what this is or where it goes, but he knows it’s him and her and somehow in this strange mess they have come to mean something to each other that’s beyond words.

Now is the moment to live in it.

He tilts his head down and she tilts hers up and their lips brush. It’s a gentle, slow exploration. It’s a softness that Cassian hasn’t felt before and isn’t quite sure suits either of them, but that Cassian wants to give her anyway.

She pushes back, just as gentle, just as soft.

It can’t last.

They both have things to do and places to go, but for now Cassian will enjoy kissing Jyn in the rain.

**Author's Note:**

> I've headcanoned Cassian in this as demisexual and not really knowing the words to understand how he's feeling, but you're welcome to read this however you want!


End file.
